HINES' 44TH CAREER NATIONAL SPRINT CAR WIN COMES AT OCALA

Ocala, Florida…….Tracy Hines waited until the final lap of Friday’s 30-lap AMSOIL National Sprint Car Feature at Bubba Raceway Park to take the lead, capitalizing on the misfortune of race-long leader Robert Ballou to claim his 44th career win with the series, just one behind Larry Dickson for third all-time.

Ballou started from outside the front-row and paced the field throughout the race, running virtually mistake-free on the low side of the track as Hines tried to carve in a line around the outside. Although Hines was able to pressure Ballou throughout, it was not until catching a slower car in the final two circuits that he looked to take the lead. Ballou, who reported a slowly deflating right-rear tire, saw Hines streak under him in turn-one on the final lap just before the tire gave way.

Hines found no trouble as he crossed under the checkered flag to mark his 18th consecutive season with at least one win in USAC’s three national series, this one coming aboard the Hansen’s Welding – Motor City Auto Transport #4 DRC/Stanton Mopar.

“You gotta be there to take advantage of things like that, and we were a pretty good car tonight, so we’re definitely getting better. His tire was probably going down for a little bit, so we were fortunate. We switched to Stanton Mopar engines for this year, and it ran really well. We did some different things with our AFCO shocks tonight, and we’ll see what we can do tomorrow,” Hines said.

Behind Hines, cars went all directions to negotiate Ballou’s slowing car, with the night’s fast qualifier Bryan Clauson taking advantage to steal the second spot on the final lap in the Chevrolet Performance – Curb Records #20 Beast/Kistler Chevy. Clauson picked up $100 earlier for the ProSource “Fast Time Award.”

“The track was just really fast tonight. Tracy went up there enough to get it carved in up top a little bit, but it just wasn’t enough to do much. The guys up front just don’t make enough mistakes to take advantage. It was still a great night for us, and it’s a big boost of confidence to be in the thick of things both nights to start the year on such different surfaces. We have a different identity here than the TSR before, with Beast Chassis and all, so it’s great to get off to such a great start with these guys,” Clauson said.

Rounding out the podium was Hunter Schuerenberg, who improved one spot on his night-one performance in the MyLocalFordStore.com – Fatheadz Eyewear #35 Mach-1/Rider.

“Coming off turn-two after I took the white was pretty interesting. I had a couple runs on Tracy early, but the rest of the time I was just kinda riding trying not to make major mistakes. I kinda misjudged the slower car on the last lap and gave up a spot, but we caught some luck to still take a podium. I’ve re-focused myself on winning races this year, and I feel like we can win every night, so I still want a little bit more,” Schuerenberg said.